DAWN Editorials 11th August 2026

Equal citizens

AUG 11 occupies a special place in our history because it was on this day in 1947 that Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah set out what citizenship in the new state ought to mean. Addressing the Constituent Assembly, he spoke of a country in which people were free to go to their temples, mosques or other places of worship, and where religion, caste or creed would not determine their standing before the state.

He insisted that citizens should enjoy equal rights, privileges and obligations, and that discrimination between communities had no place in the order Pakistan was attempting to build. These remarks formed part of a wider vision of government based on law, impartiality, protection of life and property, and the safeguarding of religious belief.

It is fitting, then, that minority rights activists will gather outside Mazar-i-Quaid in Karachi today to recall that promise and demand that it be honoured. The Minority Rights March has put forward 11 demands, including stronger safeguards against forced conversions, protection from the misuse of blasphemy laws, greater political representation, removal of discriminatory material from textbooks, protection of minority properties and places of worship, and expanded access to education and employment.

Organisers have also called for constitutional amendments allowing non-Muslim citizens to qualify for the offices of president and prime minister. Whether every demand commands consensus is a matter for democratic debate. But the principle from which they proceed — that citizenship should not be graded according to faith — should not be controversial in a republic that continues to invoke Jinnah as its founding authority. The delay in a written NOC for the march deserves attention. Peaceful assembly is a right, not a favour.

The gap between Jinnah’s principle of equal citizenship and present realities cannot be ignored. It is especially troubling because these protections were articulated at the birth of Pakistan itself. Religious minorities continue to face mob violence, attacks on their places of worship, forced conversions and social and economic exclusion.

Laws intended to protect religion have at times been weaponised through false accusations, with consequences extending far beyond the courtroom. Even where the state guarantees equality, social prejudice and institutional barriers make that guarantee fragile in practice. National Minority Rights Day must be more than a ceremonial observance.

It should prompt the state to examine where law, policy and public culture continue to fall short of the standard articulated on Aug 11, 1947. Jinnah did not ask minorities to be grateful for protection; he described equal citizenship as a fundamental principle. Pakistan cannot honour that principle through speeches alone. It will honour it when every citizen, regardless of faith, can claim the same dignity, security and political belonging.

Published in Dawn, August 11th, 2026

Tel Aviv’s subterfuge

THE Gaza peace plan championed by US President Donald Trump and his Board of Peace has encountered major turbulence, as the American leader’s Israeli friends have rejected the deal. On Sunday, the Israeli prime minister, after a cabinet meeting, said his military would not withdraw from Gaza until Hamas is “genuinely disarmed”.

These verbal gymnastics indicate that Tel Aviv has no intention of ending its occupation of the Strip. Hamas had agreed to surrender its weapons to a Palestinian committee last month, and the disarmament process and Israeli withdrawal were supposed to take place in tandem. Trump had then said the development was “monumental”. It seems his Israeli allies do not share his enthusiasm. Israel does not play by the rules, and shifts the goalposts when things are not going its way. Hamas says it remains committed to the plan.

From the Nakba to the Oslo Accords to the present day, it is the Arab side that has been expected to make all the compromises, while Israel is treated like a spoilt child and given whatever it wants by its powerful Western supporters whenever it throws a tantrum. Its rejection of the Trumpian peace plan is the latest example of this hypocrisy.

Trump does not like to take no for an answer. But both in Gaza and Lebanon, the Israelis have been constantly sabotaging his attempts to end hostilities. Will the American leader put pressure on Tel Aviv to honour its pledges vis-à-vis Gaza? The excuse that Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu will not want to be seen giving concessions to the Palestinians before the Zionist state’s October elections is flimsy. Peace and rehabilitation in Gaza cannot be held hostage to internal Israeli politics.

Israeli provocations and oppression had created the grounds for the last two Intifadas, as well as the October 2023 Hamas attacks. When Tel Aviv cuts off all avenues for peaceful resolution of the dispute, and commits to never accepting an independent Palestinian state, then violence will be the unfortunate outcome, as the Arabs resist by any means necessary. Sadly, it appears that Israel thrives in an atmosphere of violence, and is uninterested in peace. This is the reality unless it changes its tune on the Gaza peace plan.

Published in Dawn, August 11th, 2026

Abandoned after floods

THREE years after the 2022 floods submerged a third of Pakistan, more than 134,000 verified affected families in Balochistan who lost their homes have learnt that the state does not intend to rebuild for all of them. The committee overseeing a World Bank-funded project has capped the housing component at roughly 69,000 units and redirected the rest of the $400m programme towards roads and irrigation. Consequently, the lender has withdrawn the $180m in additional financing that could have completed the job. A prime ministerial promise of ‘resilient’ housing for every family that lost a home has ended up as a line item that has been quietly reassigned. The official policy has now confirmed that roughly half will stay without shelter.

A report in this paper suggests that 15,000 completed houses reported to the PM bore no relation to the 8,694 in the official record. An inquiry found misrepresentation, though accounts differ on who inflated the figures and why. The Planning Commission says housing funds were wrongly diverted there from health, education and irrigation to begin with, and that this is a correction. Others say that money is, instead, being pulled from the neediest component towards contractor-driven infrastructure. Both cannot be entirely true. What is certain is that the families affected have no say in the dispute. The commission cites 75,000 houses under construction and 26,000 completed — figures that sit uneasily against its own 68,922-unit cap. The Economic Affairs Division has flagged the World Bank’s unease over changes in project leadership as even the ministries coordinating this effort are not aligned. The fact-finding committee ordered to investigate has already been denied access to records in Balochistan — which itself should count as evidence. The comparison with Sindh’s relatively successful flood-housing programme only sharpens the indictment. Differences in financing do not explain why Pakistan’s most neglected province is also the one where promises of reconstruction prove most negotiable.

Published in Dawn, August 11th, 2026